You should use the yarn that you’ve knitted your project with to sew up your finished knits. This way, your sewing-up yarn behaves the same way as the knitted fabric that you’ve made when it is washed, which is ideal.

But when you start mixing fabrics, zips and decorative embellishments into your knitting, the rules change slightly.

This bridesmaid’s dress from our May 2015 Knitting & Crochet magazine used a very fine silk for the skirt

Trying to pull a darning needle stuffed with yarn through a finely woven fabric is hard to do. Even if you do manage it, you might bore big holes into the fabric and cause damage.

Instead, use a fine sewing needle and a double-length of a machine-washable household sewing thread. Knitting produces a very thick fabric compared to thread, so by doubling it up, you are doing all you can to make the thread as close a thickness as possible to the yarn.

You can gather the fabric with some very careful placement for a frilled effect

The rest is very straightforward. For a cushion like the one above, simply sandwich your heart-shaped pieces together with the right-sides facing each other (facing inwards) with the trimming pinned in-between, facing inwards.

Stitch around the seam leaving a one-stitch seam allowance with a fine running stitch penetrating through all three layers.